What if getting online was the first step out of homelessness?
Last week, I wrote about how healthcare can trap people in homelessness. This week, I want to talk about another barrier that rarely makes the headlines, and one that quietly determines who gets ahead and who gets left behind: access to technology.
For thousands of people experiencing homelessness, the hardest part of moving forward isn't finding motivation or even opportunity. It's getting connected.
I met a woman named "Angela" at one of our outreaches in New York City. She had steady hands, a warm smile, and more than a decade of experience in home health care. She didn't need training or encouragement. She needed Wi-Fi.
When Angela fled an abusive relationship, she lost her phone, her laptop, and most of her personal records. She thought she could replace them easily, until she realized how hard it is to live in a world that assumes everyone is plugged in.
She saved up enough for a used smartphone, but keeping it charged and connected was a daily struggle. Public outlets are rare, and the ones that exist are in places that close early or require a purchase. A phone left unattended to charge can be stolen in seconds. A laptop? Even riskier. Angela told me she tried to use a library computer to fill out job applications, but her sessions would end after 30 minutes, erasing everything she had entered.
Free Wi-Fi at coffee shops often requires you to buy something. Homeless shelters and train stations limit access. And when her prepaid phone plan ran out of data, job portals wouldn't load. Potential employers called numbers that had been disconnected. Emails went unread because she had no way to get online. Every digital tool meant to open doors instead reminded her how many were closed.
She told me, half laughing and half defeated, "I finally got a phone again, but it's useless if I can't charge it or keep it safe. Everything I need to do to move forward lives online, and I can't stay connected long enough to do any of it.”
That's what digital poverty looks like.
We've built an economy that assumes everyone has a smartphone, a data plan, a laptop, and stable Wi-Fi. But for our neighbors living on the streets or in shelters, none of those things are guaranteed. Even small technical barriers — a dead battery, a stolen phone, a lost password — can stall progress for weeks or months.
Technology is supposed to connect us. But for people like Angela, it often becomes another wall that separates those with reliable access from those doing everything they can just to stay online.
At City Relief, we help people bridge that gap by charging phones, helping them access Wi-Fi, setting up email accounts, and walking with them through the digital maze that stands between survival and stability. Before someone can rebuild their life, they need a way to log back in.
With gratitude,
Josiah Haken
City Relief, CEO
